While 2020 was marked by un­precedented changes and challenges, the way our Toshiba team and dealer community have adapted and risen to the occasion has been inspiring. I sincerely thank our collective organizations for their com­mitment, effort and support this year.

As the pandemic evolves into 2021 many employees continue to work from home and of­fices remain at reduced capacity. Solu­tions are required to ensure hybrid office environments operate as seam­lessly as with work-from-home devices such as laser printers, A4 multifunction printers (MFPs) and scanners.

If they haven’t already, organizations need to create home offices that are compliant with cor­porate security, serviceability and budgets while preventing 31 flavors of unprotected or unsupported devices. Appropriate technologies can support those remote devices in the same manner as corporate devices with service, supplies and so on. The goal here is helping businesses look at their hybrid environments as unified office environments, where the same quality and standards apply, no matter the location of the devices.

Solutions will continue to have significance in 2021 in two main categories — those that help ensure security and those that help bridge the digital divide between distributed workers.

Leading analyst firms have shown that security will be a growth area for IT spend, which makes sense given the dramatic increase in cyberattacks during the pandemic. And, the sharing of information among distributed workers is also critical because companies no longer have access to their file rooms or local networks. Therefore, paper needs to be converted to digital and digital information needs to be securely shared — or, better yet, put to work for the busi­ness through workflow or content management solutions.

In the long-term, appropriately placed devices that adhere to corporate standards and the ongoing adoption of digital tools to empower remote workers will help facilitate seamless transitions to and from the office as the pandemic continues to ebb and flow into 2021.

While some businesses already adapted to this hybrid work model in 2020, it is by no means coming to an end. In fact, a recent Gallup poll estimates that up to two-thirds of remote workers would like to continue to work re­motely even after the pandemic.

Those businesses that started the hybrid office transition may need help optimizing it, especially since some of the work was done just to “keep the lights on” during the pandemic. The next phase will be looking for ways to achieve business advantages from hav­ing unified digital office environments. The good news is there is much that can be done to help end users continue to gain speed and efficiency with their devices and data.

However possible, United Imaging | Toshiba ProMaster Elite Dealer is here to help guide our customers through this challenging time.

We are excitedly looking forward to providing next-generation hardware, software, and related technologies in 2021 to con­tinue to enhance the unified office experience.

We will also expand our high-performance label printer line while fulfilling a wide variety of essential healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, and retail applications. Toshiba customers can also expect to see the latest in digital signage technology and implementations.

Toshiba will continue offering affordable pricing and fi­nancing options and expand enablement resources with new and impactful content featuring live and recorded webinars, courses, and training sessions. We are heavily invested in the success of our client community and com­mitted to remaining agile alongside you.

Please reach out for any support you may require. The United Imaging | Toshiba ProMaster Elite Dealer stands beside you in 2021 and be­yond. Let us know how we can help.

Excerpts of this blog were originally published by Office Technology Magazine, December 2020.

Contact us today to learn more about Toshiba Business Solutions for your office.